IELTS Vocabulary ebook

Definition: Relating to agriculture

Example sentences:

• Agricultural land covers 33% of the world's land area, with arable land representing less than one-third of agricultural land.

Definition: (Of land) used or suitable for growing crops.

Example sentences:

• A third of Russia's arable land lies fallow and production costs are one-third lower than those for American wheat farmers. Some cyanobacteria do not require fresh water, nitrate - based fertilizer, or even arable land to grow and flourish.

If you cultivate land or crops, you prepare land and grow crops on it. Cultivation is the act of cultivating.The adjective cultivable describe land that can be cultivated.

Here are example sentences

• It is believed that due to climate change, people moved from animal hunting to gathering and agriculture. About 10,000 years ago, some human groups began to raise animals and cultivate domesticated plants.
• Prehistoric peoples settled the area and began to cultivate the land.
• Some of the fields are cultivated while others lie fallow.
• The burning of woodland created an open clearing for the cultivation of hazel trees and grazing animals.  
• In the past cultivation of crops was a labor-intensive process.
• Arid land is unsuitable for many crops and must be irrigated in order for cultivation to take place.
• Cultivable land can be used to grow crops.
• Most of the island isn't cultivable - the soil is too rocky.

To domesticate is to bring animals or plants under human control in order to provide food, power, or company. Domestication is the process of domesticating. Here are example sentences:

• Dogs were probably the first animals to be domesticated.
• Through the years of domestication of wheat, there have been several objectives that strive toward making it more productive. 
• Most historians believe that animal husbandry began with the domestication of wild dogs.

To enrich something means to improve its quality, usually by adding something to it. For example:

• The soya bean originated in China, is used it as 'green manure' to enrich the soil for growing other crops.
• It is important to enrich the soil prior to planting. 
• Their lives were enriched by the experience. = It was a life-enriching experience for them.
• Their research has enriched [=improved] our understanding of the problem.
• How can I enrich my vocabulary?

To enrich someone also means to make them richer. For example:

• They tried to enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

A thing that enriches something is enrichment. For example

• A reading enrichment program improves education.
• When vitamins or nutrients are added to food, that's enrichment because it makes the food healthier.

Enrichment can also mean the state of being enriched. For example:

• Manure contains plant essential nutrients, but overuse of manure on agricultural land can cause nutrient enrichment in soils, consequently leading to groundwater eutrophication.
• Native North American grasses develop an extensive root system, allowing for greater enrichment of the soil.

Fertility refers to the quality of being able to fertilize, so it can have the following meanings:

• the quality of producing a large number of good quality crops
• the quality of being able to produce young or fruit:
• the quality of producing a lot of unusual and interesting ideas 

Example sentences:

• Farmers began to alternate the cultivation to maintain fertility. 
• Crop rotation can improve soil structure and fertility by alternating deep-rooted and shallow-rooted plants.
• Globally, the fertility rate has fallen to 2.5 children per woman and low fertility rates are the norm in most parts of the world.

To fertilize is to spread a natural or chemical substance on land or plants, in order to make the plants grow well. Here are example sentences:

• In organic farming, only natural materials may be used to fertilize crops.
• Much of the soil in our nation has become infertile due to the overuse of pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers.

To fertilize can also mean to cause an egg or seed to start to develop into a new young animal or plant by joining it with a male cell. Here are example sentences:

• Bees fertilize the flowers by bringing pollen.
• Once an egg is fertilized by the sperm, it becomes an embryo.
• Plants that can self-fertilize can still benefit from cross-pollination because it can lead to more or higher quality fruit.

Definition: Collect or obtain (a resource) for future use

Example senences:

• Plants and bacteria have been harvesting solar energy and converting it into chemical forms of energy through a process known as photosynthesis for a really long time.

Definition: A substance used for killing insects

Example sentences:

• Mites may be developing resistance to some of the currently used chemical insecticides.

Irrigation is the watering of the land to make it ready for farming. People often set up irrigation systems, such as sprinklers, to prepare the land for crops. It can mean to supply dry land with water, even in the form of ditches. Here are example sentences:

• The crops failed because there wasn’t a proper irrigation system.
• Dryland farming is the practice cultivating crops without irrigation. 
• Unsustainable practices in irrigation and production may lead to soil degradation.
• California’s primary agricultural land is in semiarid or arid zones where precipitation is highly seasonal and often nil during the growing season. Therefore, nearly all food and feed crop production depend on irrigation.

Definition: A thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions.

Example sentences:

• The permafrost below the topsoil is frozen all year around, and this prevents roots from penetrating deeply into the ground.

Definition: the process of increasing the salt content is known as salination

Example sentences:

• There is a widespread salinization of soils caused either by irrigation which draws salts to the surface in dry areas or else the evaporation of irrigation water that leaves salt in its stead.

Definition: The gradual movement of wet soil or other material down a slope, especially where frozen subsoil acts as a barrier to the percolation of water.

Example sentences:

• In contrast to the soil creep of temperate regions, solifluction and gelifiuction are relatively rapid processes in periglacial regions and can result in the active development of slopes.